Life streams through the world – and through our veins. Light and darkness dance in rhythmic measures – encouraging seeds to fruition with love.

Rabindranath Tagore

The Greek mother/daughter Goddesses, Demeter and Persephone, provide the origin story for our changing seasons. When her daughter, Persephone, goes missing in the underworld, Demeter neglects her role of attending to the fruits of nature, causing a famine that threatens to destroy humanity. Hecate intervenes to reunite them, but there is a caveat. Because Persephone ate some fruit down there she has to split her time between the worlds. Demeter, accepts this and Persephone becomes the Goddess of spring. With her annual visit the earth is renewed and she moves through it with love and light – when she returns to the underworld winter resumes and darkness prevails.

This week, many of us will “spring forward” losing an hour of sleep to theoretically gain an hour of light and trick us into conserving electricity. It’s important to recognize that this abrupt shift is not aligned with how our Circadian Rhythms respond to light and dark. Every nerve and tissue in our body aligns with our biological clock and disruptions can mess with our sleep, digestion, and blood pressure causing stress and affecting our physical and emotional well-being. Here are a few simple practices you can do for a few days to help ease the adjustment with love and light:

• Watch the Sunrise: Align yourself with natural morning light. Make it your first priority to get outside for a meditative morning walk or to sit and contemplate the sunrise and a glass of lemon water. Take care not to compensate with extra caffeine.
• Stay Present: Research tells us that more accidents happen when the time changes and staying in the moment can help you to avoid them. When you find yourself in autopilot or multi-tasking come back to your breath. Maybe this isn’t the time to take on new physical or mental challenges.
• Rest and Digest: Make yourself a supportive meal plan that includes easy-to-digest seasonal fruits, (cooked) vegetables, and plenty of healthy snacks. Go for a bigger lunch outdoors if you can, and then plan a lighter candle-lit dinner.
• Embrace the Darkness: Go to bed or at least turn off all bright lights, especially from screens, an hour earlier than the clock says is bedtime. Might be a good time to journal, meditate, or cuddle with your pets (they for sure are not springing forward).